Permutation lock



Dec. 1, 1931. R. A CRUSE PE/RMUTATION LOCK FiledSept; 11, 1929 2Sheets-Sheet 1 INVENTOR ATTORNEY Dec. 1, 1931. c us 1,834,091

PERMUTATION LOCK Filed Sept. 11, 1929 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Patented Dec. 1,1931 PATENT, OFFICE RAYMOND A. CRUSE, or BENLD, ILLINOIS PERMUTATIONLOCK Application filed September 11, 1929. Serial No. 391,904.

Ihis invention relates to a permutation lock which is mainly designedfor locking the steering wheel of a motor Vehicle and the I spare tirethereof, the general object of the invention being to provide aplurality of notched. rotary tumblers on a supporting member in the lockcasing which, when in certain positions, will have their notches alignwith a groove in the supporting member so that the locking bolt, whichis slidably arranged in the supporting member, can be moved to unlockingposition, but when the tumblers are in other positions, the notches willbe out of alignment with the groove,

so that the bolt is locked in projected position.

Another object of the invention is to provide the bolt with a springpressed bar extending into the groove and having beveled teeth thereonfor engaging the tumblers when the notches are out of alignment with thegroove, for holdingthe bolt in locking position, said bar, with itsbeveled teeth, permitting the bolt to be projectedeven when the notchesin the tumblers are out of alignment with the groove, and said teethpassing through the notches when the same are in alignment with thegroove during the unlocking movement of the bolt.

7 Another object of the invention is to provide ring members on thesupporting member for moving the tumblers, said members havingcombination characters on their outer circumferences which appearthrough a window in the casing so thatthe members can be readily turnedto bring the proper combination of characters at the center of thewindow to align the notches in the tumblers with the groove inthe'supporting member, with means whereby the attachment point of eachring member with its tumbler can be changed to change the combination.

A further object of the invention is v to so construct and arrange theparts that it will be impossible to gain access to the interior parts orremove the casing from the part to which it is attached when the bolt isin'locking position and also to provide means whereby the bolt will bebent and thus held in locking position if the lock is struck with anobject in an attempt to gain access to the parts :to move the bolt tounlocking position.

A still further object of the invention is to provide means whereby thesupporting member with the tumblers, their carriers and the ring memberscan be removed as a unit from :the casing, with means whereby thevarious parts can be removed from the supporting member-after the samehas been removed from the casing.

1 -Thls invention .also consists in certain other features ofconstruction and in the combination and'arrangement of the severalparts, to be hereinafter fully described, illustrated] in theaccompanying drawings and specifically pointed out in the appendedclaim. H c In describing the invention in detail, reference will be hadto the accompanying drawings wherein like characters denote like orcorresponding parts throughout the several views, and in which Figure 1is a view showing the improved lock used for locking a steering wheel tothe column, 7 k 7 Figure 2 is a section on line 22 of Fig-' ure 5; 7

Figure 3 is a sectionalview, with parts in elevation, the section beingtaken at rightangles to Figure 2.

' Figure 4 is a front view of the lock.

Figure 5 is a section on line 55 of F igure 2. p

Figure 6 is a section on line 66 of Figure 2. g

Figure 7 is a section on line 77 of Figure 2.

Figure 8 is a perspective View of the supporting member. t

Figure 9 is a perspective view of the bolt.

' Figure 10 is a perspective view of one of the ring members.

Figure 11 is a similar view of one of the tumblers.

Figure 12 is a similar view of one of the tumbler carriers.

Figure 13 is a similar view of the trunnion carrying-member.

V Figure 14 is a'similar view of a part of one-half of the casing.

Figure 15 is a similar view of the other art.

Figure 16 is a view showing the lock used enlargement 4 at its lowerend, the enlargement oi? the section-1 projecting beyond the edgesv ofthe section, as shown atv 5, and the ends or the other enlargement.terminating short of the edges of: its section to. provide :therecesses: 6' for receiving the projecting ends& of the firstenlargement. Wedges 7 are formed on the walls oftherecesses and engagethe wedge sh-aped notches S in the ends'5 when the sections are placedtogether sothat this endof thecasing has-its sections locked togetherand the trout section 2 cannot be: removed from the rear section 1unless the trout section is movedupwardly tofree the wedges from thenotches. The topoi the casing is closed bythe-circular part9 formed onthe upper end oi? the section 1 and the upper end of thefront section 2'engages this part. The upper part of the front section 'cated in thecasing andis formed with: a cirhas an inwardly extending projection 10thereon which has a hole 11 therein which aligns with a, hole 12 formedinthe center of the part 10, when the sections are together.

-Screws 13 fasten the upper parts of the two sections together and therear section has the holes liltherei-n tor receiving screws or the like,so-thatthe casing can be fastened to the steering column B of a vehicleor other support. his will be'seen, when the device is assembled, thescrews are enclosed by the parts of the casing and are thusinaccessible. The front/section has anelongated window 15 in its frontpart and the side and top-walls of this windowaretliickened' inwardly,as at 16, so that these walls are of the samethicknessas the thickenedpart. 46 which extends upwardly to the bottom ofthe window.

A cylindrical supporting. member 17 is locular head 18, and said memberhas a bore 19 passing therethrough, with a longitudinal slot20 in itsbody part which. communicates with the bore. Thebody part isalso formedwith the spaced annular grooves 21 and with 'the vertical roove 22'which'is parallel to the slot 20 and is divided into sections by theannular grooves 21. The-front part of the head is formed with asubstantially semi-circular flange 23 which rests on the flange formedby the upper part of the thickened portion 16. A ring-shaped tumber 24engages each annular groove 21, each tumbler being formed of a largesection and a small section, with the small section fitting in the largesection, as. clearly shown in Figure 11. Each tumbler fits in aringeshaped' carrier.- 25 of substantially cup shape and this carrierholds the two sections of the tumbler together, and the carrierencircles the supporting member and has. akey 26 on its innercircumference which engage's'the vertical groove 22. A combination ring27 isplaced. above each tumbler and has a plurality of radiating notches28 in its lower' t'ace, any one of which isadapted to; receive a key-29. on the; tumbler. The. outer circum'lierencea of each ring 2'1carries the combination characters: 30. and the vertical lines 31, oneofwhich passes through each character. These. rings 27 encirclethesupporting member. By making thetumblersin sections, they can bereadily" placed in the annular grooves21 and then thecarriers25.areplaced over the tumblers to hold them in the grooves and by providinga plurality of notches 28 therings 27 the rings can be attached to thetumblers at different points so that the combination arrangementcan bechangedwhen desired. After the tumblers, carriers and rings are placedon the supporting member, a sleeve 32 is placed on the lower end of thesupporting member and fastened thereto by a screw 33', so thatth-issleeve holds the parts on thesupporting. member. The sleeve 'is formedwith an internal key 34 which engages. the lower part of the groove 22and said sleeve carries the trunnions 35 which engage the bearingreceses 36- formedin the part liozfi'the rear section of-thecasi-ng'.Thus after-the parts are assembled onthe supporting member, thesupporting member can be placed in the rear section of the casing byplacing the trunnions 35 in the recesses 36 and then pushing the upperpart of the supportingmember into the rear section of the casing, withthe upper endgoi the supporting member passing under a projection 37 onthe section which prevents upward movement of the supporting member. Aswill be seen, the sleeve 32- closes the lower end of the casing andfits-snugly the parts; 4' when the front section of the casin-g isplaced in engagement with the rear section. When the two sections 'ar eplaced together, the thickened walls 16 abut the carriers; 25 andthe'rings 27, so that some of the combination characters will appearthrough the window and the flange 23 on the head of the supportingmember engages the flange formed by the top part of the thickened wall16. A spring 38, arranged in a socket-'inthehead of thesupporting-memher and engaging a part of the rear section ot'the casing,normally holds the parts in the position they occupy in Figure 2.

l-OQ

A locking bolt 39 passes through the bore of the supporting member andthrough the holes 11 and 12 in the parts 9 and 10 when the bolt isprojected, the lower end of the bolt having a knob 40 thereon wherebythe bolt can be moved. Said bolt has a slot 41 therein which receivesthe rack bar 42 and the spring 43 which normally holds the rack barprojected. The inwardly turned ends of the rack bar are connected withthe bolt by the pin and slot connections 44. The teeth of the rack barare beveled upwardly and as will be seen, the spring 43 normally holdsthe rack bar with its teeth in the slot 20 of the supporting member. Thetumblers are formed with the internal notches 45, so that when thetumblers are positioned with these notches aligning with the slot 20,the teeth of the rack bar will pass through the notches of the tumblersduring sliding movement of the locking bolt, but when the tumblers areturned to a position where their notches are out ofalignment with theslot 20, the straight walls of the teeth will contact solid portions ofthe tumblers and thus prevent the bolt from being moved to retractedposition. By beveling the teeth,the bolt can be projected, even thoughthe tumblers are in a position with the notches out of alignment withthe slot 20, for in this case the beveled portions of the teeth, comingin contact with the solid parts of the tumblers, will cause the rack barto move inwardly, so that the bolt can be projected.

From the foregoing it will be seen that the bolt can be moved toprojected position irrespective of the position of the tumblers, but inorder to move the bolt to unlocking position, it is necessary that thetumblers be so positioned that their notches 45 will be in alignmentwith the slot 20 of the supporting member. Thus it will be necessary forone to know the proper combination of the characters on the rings 27before he can adjust the tumblers to unlocking position. Figure 4 showsthe unlocking combination as consisting of the characters A G E H, thelines 31 on the combination rings facilitating the proper aligning ofthe characters. The rings can be easily turned by slight pressure eX-erted on those portions which are exposed by the window. It will also beseen that by causing the bolt to pass through the projection 10 on thefront section of the casing, the two parts of the casing are lockedtogether by the bolt, so that it is impossible to gain access to theinterior parts by removing the screws 13. The thickened walls 16, theoverlapping edges 3, together with the sleeve 32 and its connection withthe casing, as well as the manner of connecting the lower ends of thetwo sections of the casing together, prevent access to the interiorparts by attempting to force a tool or other object between the parts.As before stated, it will also be impossible to remove the casing fromthe steering column as the fastening means are enclosed by the casing. H

The upper end of the locking bolt is formed with the cuts 46 so thatifthe supporting member and its associated parts are struck with a hammeror the like, in an attempt to damage the lock to render it ineffective,said member'willbe forced rearwardly against the action of the spring88, so that the upper part of the locking bolt willbe bent at the placewhere it is struck, as shown in Figure 18, and thus the locking boltwill be jammed in looking position, so that it cannot be retracted.

As before stated, the combination can be changed whenever desired byremoving the supporting member from the casing and then removing thering parts thereon and reassembling the ring parts, with the keys 29 ofthe tumblers engaging different notches 28 of the members 27.

The above description of the invention relates to the arrangement ofparts shown in Figure 1, but it will, of course, be understood that thedevice can be placed inother positions than that shown in said figure.

Figures 16 and 17 show the lock used to lock the plate 47 to the support48 of a spare wheel 49. In this case, the locking bolt, when projected,passes through a keeper recess 50 in one of the bolts 51 which connectthe plate 47 with the plate 48. In other respects, this form of theinvention is the same as that before described.

It is thought from the foregoing description that the advantages andnovel features of the invention will be readily apparent.

It is to be understood that changes may be made in the construction andin the combination and arrangement of the several parts, provided thatsuch changes fall within the scope of the appended claim.

What I claim is Y A lock comprising a casing, including complementarysemi-cylindrical sections having their adjacent edges overlapping whenthe sections are associated, lateral projections extending from one endof one section and having tapered notches formed therein, the

corresponding end of the other section having recesses to receive saidprojections, vertically disposed wedges carried by the walls of therecesses and adapted to be received in said notches whereby the sectionsare efl'ectively secured together, or separated by longi tudinalmovement, one section with relation to the other, an end wall carried bythe first mentioned section and constituting a closure for the casingwhen the sections are associated, an inwardly projectingextensioncarried by the adjacent end of the other section and arranged beneathandparallel with said end wall, a cylindrical supporting member arrangedwithin the casing and having a longitudinal bore, tumblers on saidsupportmembers, and a lmkin-g boll; having means to interlock with saidtumblers: and slsixelable: through said supporting member and received;by openings: formed: the sai' end wall and i'nw'amlly projectingextension, 7 7 whereby the SfitlG-HS 0f the casing: are locked ;V.together all their upper endsby sai'id bplcb and thalatter held= agamstwithdrawal by said tumblers. I

In testimsny' whereof I am my signature.

RAYMOND A. GRUSE.

